BATON ROUGE — The 23rd-ranked LSU women’s tennis team will host its in-state rival Tulane Green Wave Wednesday at 2 p.m. in the “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
“This is a really important match for our team,” said LSU head coach Tony Minnis. “We need a win tomorrow to improve our chances of making the NCAA Tournament for the sixth-straight season, at the same time a loss would be very detrimental.”
LSU (11-7, 2-6 Southeastern Conference) is 3-0 versus Louisiana schools this season. Earlier this year the Lady Tigers defeated Southern, Centenary, and Southeastern Louisiana. LSU was victorious in all three matches by the score of 6-0.
The Lady Tigers are coming off of a 7-2 victory against the Purdue Boilermakers. Prior to the win over Purdue, LSU was defeated in its previous two matches on the road versus SEC teams by the score of 5-4. The Lady Tigers were beaten by 20th-ranked Tennessee and then upset by Arkansas in the two losses.
Tulane (11-6) heads into Wednesday’s contest in the midst of a four-match winning streak. The Green Wave defeated Rice, 8-0, Middle Tennessee State, 5-4, Texas-Arlington, 7-2, and Louisiana-Lafayette, 8-1. Tulane’s most recent loss was on March 22, against Kentucky. The Green Wave lost the match in doubles play, 5-4.
“Tulane has had a great season so far,” Minnis said. “They are a really good team, and it is important that we show up and play a solid match.”
The Lady Tigers dominate the all-time series between the two schools with wins in 24 out of the 26 matches. LSU has won the previous five matches in the series, and have not lost to Tulane since 1994. In that match, the Green Wave stunned the Lady Tigers, 6-3, in Baton Rouge.
The match between the LSU Lady Tigers and the Tulane Green Wave will begin Wednesday at 2 p.m. in the “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.